Bethesda saw the funny side

Video games being used as footage for real-life news stories isn’t a new phenomenon, but it’s still quite amusing when it happens. Now, CNN has become the latest organization to feature a gaming clip in one of its reports.

In a video aired late last month during a segment on President Obama’s sanctions against Russia for its cyberhacking, a sharp-eyed viewer noticed the clip contained the hacking terminals from Fallout 4. Reddit user Poofylicious posted a screenshot of the distinctive green lettering from the mini-game, though the section appears to have now been removed from CNN’s report.

It seems many news outlets still make strange choices when picking footage to represents hacking. If it’s not a clip from The Matrix or 1995’s Hackers, then a generic keyboard or a hooded youth in a V for Vendetta mask is used for B-roll footage.

Bethesda, the company behind Fallout 4, has taken the incident in good humor. Studio Vice President Pete Hines tweeted: “Wait till they discover FO4 players were actually helping Russians and cracking real security through that mini game.”

Bethesda Game Studios' Twitter account joined in by posting an image of one of the terminals, along with the message that it was an early look at the next season of Mr. Robot.

Back in 2011, a report by British TV station ITV showed footage of a helicopter being shot down using weapons allegedly supplied by the IRA, but the clip was taken straight from ArmA 2. And in May last year, the UK Russian embassy tweeted a screenshot from Command and Conquer: Generals to illustrate the extremist activities taking place in Aleppo.